Top 3 Advertising Failures of 2016- and What Your Business Can Learn From Them

December 9, 2016

Marketing today has to be more creative than ever. From aerial advertising, billboards, and e-mail to social media platforms, companies are coming up with incredibly extravagant and creative ideas in order to market their businesses. However, there have been some infamous marketing blunders in the past year, too. And thanks to those selfsame technologies, those advertising failures go viral in a matter of minutes.

In order to prevent these mistakes from happening to you, here are some of the most popular social media marketing mistakes from 2016.

Retailer Vera Bradley launches a campaign that focuses only on girls

Vera Bradley sells brightly colored handbags and luggage that is marketed primarily to women and girls. However, their recent campaign, "How to Be a Girl", faced major criticism because it portrayed women as helpless and sexist. The brand asked women all over the nation to share why they enjoy being a girl, and published statements such as "Being able to hang out with the boys but still be treated like a lady," and "That moment when a gentleman offers you his seat," much to the dismay of some feminist social media users.

Coca-Cola uses the wrong map of Russia

In their holiday campaign, the soda giant published a map of a snow covered Russia. Problem is, the map they were using is outdated and omitted Kaliningrad, which was annexed after World War II. In response, Coca-Cola drinkers all over Russia posted pictures of them pouring the drink down their sinks with the hashtag #BanCocaCola.

The GOP sends out horribly insensitive tweets

Earlier this year, the National Republican Party's authorized Twitter sent out a tweet saying Democratic representative "Tammy Duckworth has a sad record of not standing up for our veterans." While this mudslinging can be expected during an election year, this tweet was particularly tasteless — Rep. Duckworth lost both of her legs while serving overseas in Iraq as a helicopter pilot. Plus, when her tour was done, she worked as assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As a business owner, do not make these simple advertising mistakes. While you want your advertising to stand out, you want it to stand out for the right reasons.

Here's one sure way to make your next advertisement stand out: creating airplane banners or skywriting with an aerial advertising company. In skywriting, airplane messages are typically about eight characters long, with each letter being about one mile tall. While eight characters might not seem like a lot, in the age of hashtags it's the perfect amount. And with your name in the sky, customers will be knocking on your door in no time!

Interested in aerial advertising? Contact Aerial Messages today with any and all of your ideas.

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Remy Colin had promised us a 20% increase revenue in Crab sales for that weekend and he delivered. That weekend we sold 30% more crab than the previous year. Right away we jumped on the aerial advertising bus. We changed our advertising strategies immediately, diverted the necessary funds to fly every day all summer long and it paid off. Our sales in 2013 increased close to 40%.